Villa v Forest: Premier League Preview
Introduction
Welcome everyone to this Premier League clash between Aston Villa and Nottingham Forest. The home side are the favourites to win in this lunchtime start as they are flying this season and are currently sitting third, while Forest are seventeenth and just a handful of points outside of the relegation zone.
Each side are entering the game following a defeat as Villa were defeated 4-1 by top-of-the-table Arsenal and Forest fell 2-0 to Everton.
This promises to be a difficult task for Forest to obtain all three points with Villa boasting one of the best home records in Europe at the moment and they also recorded a team record of 36 wins across all competitions this season. But maybe it’s a new year and a new narrative? We will find out very soon.
The starting lineups will drop shortly before the start at 12.30pm GMT.
Team News
The starting XIs have been announced. The Villa boss has made a quartet of alterations to his starting lineup who lost 4-1 to Arsenal last time around.
Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Lindelof, Maatsen, Kamara, Tielemans, McGinn, Buendia, Rogers, Watkins.
Substitutes: Bizot, Digne, Sancho, Garcia, Carroll, Bogarde, Hemmings, Malen, Jimoh-Aloba.
Forest have also made four adjustments to their starting squad after a 2-0 loss to Everton.
Nottingham Forest: Victor, Williams, Murillo, Anderson, Gibbs-White, Dominguez, I Jesus, Hutchinson, Bakwa, Milenkovic, Aina.
Bench: Sels, Morato, Awoniyi, Luiz, Kalimuendo, McAtee, Zinchenko, Savona, Abbott.
Dugout Insights
Nottingham Forest manager Sean Dyche has said on his counterpart today:
"He has done a great job as a manager there. Their signings has been impressive - invested a lot of money, to be fair, on some very good players and they’ve forged it into a good unit, so definitely a difficult game.
We’ve just shown lately, we’ve faced some of the top sides, or the ones that are fancied every year, and held our own against them - and a couple of teams maybe not as fancied, we haven't performed as strongly against them. That’s probably the challenge of the group - rising to the challenge of each game rather than just the major fixtures."
Squad News
The midfielder has will not be staying at Aston Villa, an update that was confirmed by the manager Emery in the lead-up to this match. The boss stated:
"I am respecting him as much as possible because he’s a very good professional, very respectful. The issue we have with Harvey is this year he is a loan player and if he is playing matches, we are obligated to buy him. We made the decision two months ago we are not persuaded to sign him, committing the money we would need to."
Season Snapshot
How times change. This time last year Forest were third in the table, where Aston Villa are now. A lot of things have altered, including the manager twice and Sean Dyche is charged with keeping the club in the top-flight this season. Since being appointed on 21 October, Dyche has secured 10 Premier League points and the side are just above the relegation zone with 19 games of the season to go.
